Pisco & La Serena, Chile

The next day we had to take a bus to Calama, and then from there a night bus further south to La Serena. Our bus was supposed to arrive around 6am in La Serena, and at 10:30am we had a rental car booked to drive out to one of the observatories in the area. This area of Chile has three major, working observatories, and on Saturdays you can go tour them for free. You just need to book your spots in advance and have a car to get to them; there is no public transport. We arrived in La Serena no problems, went and got some breakfast, then walked to pick up our car. Upon arriving at the rental place, however, we learned that French credit cards don’t work for car rentals in Chile, because the Chilean system treats them like a debit card, and therefore they can’t put the $500 hold on your card in case of damages. I don’t currently have a Canadian credit card, and the card that I do have, while not French, works the same way in the Chilean system. The guys at the rental place told us the only place that they have heard French cards do work is at Europcar - but the only Europcar rental place is at the airport. By that point, by the time we got to the airport and worked out the rental (if they could, indeed, accept our cards), we would be over an hour late for the tour.

Disappointed, we cancelled our car rental and instead booked a bus ticket to where we were planning on going after the observatory, a place called Pisco Elqui. This is where most of the country’s pisco, a liquor made from distilled wine, is made. It’s a beautiful area up in the mountains with vineyards everywhere. These vineyards look different, however, because they are designed for growing grapes ideal for pisco, not wine. They grow the vines up much taller and horizontal, rather than closer to the ground like we’re used to seeing in France and Niagara. We were staying in one of the numerous “campings” in the area, only it isn’t really camping - it’s staying in small cabins. We had a small cabin just for two, with a barbecue outside of it. There was a pool, as well, only in Chile they almost never heat the pools. Being it was only just spring there, even the hot, high sun of the afternoon couldn’t combat the nighttime temperatures. We didn’t end up using the pool.

The first night that we arrived, they were having a special celebration in the town square for the national holiday that was coming up in a little less than a week. All the families from the town were there and many people from neighboring towns, plus people who were travelling in from La Serena and Santiago for holidays. The show participants were all dressed in traditional clothing and dancing to traditional Chilean music, including dances and songs specific to that region. There were also people giving out the Chilean version of Chica for free. If you don’t remember from our post about the Chichafuerte ceremony in San Blas, chica is a fermented (therefore, alcoholic) drink. In Panama it’s made from fermented sugar cane juice, but in this region of Chile it is made from fermented grapes. They were also selling Churrasca, which is a grilled flat bread that you can either eat by itself, with smashed avocado on top, or a salsa made with onions and tomatoes. It was delicious, but not exactly what we were expecting. The thing is, Chile has an entire lexicon of its own - it is well known in all of Latin America that the Chilean version of Spanish is the most difficult, for the speed in which they talk, the accent, and the modizmos - Chile-specific words and phrases. When they told us they would be making Churrasca, I mixed it up with churrasco, which in most other countries is a specific cut of beef. When they handed us the bread with the different toppings on it, we took them and walked over to the grill, expecting to be given some meat to go with it, as well. Standing there looking at the grill, however, we quickly realized our error: the grill was for grilling the bread. We looked at each other and laughed - Chile strikes again! We weren’t overly annoyed, however, because churrasca is delicious just the way it is.

We stood in the town square and watched the different performances and dancing that was taking place. Everyone participated, with dancers as young as four or five years old dancing alongside people that could be their grandparents. Even those who weren’t part of the performance would sometimes join in, as everyone seemed to know the songs and the steps. A couple of days later we would see a school out learning and practicising, and later in Santiago a friend of mine would explain that every September they learn and practice their traditional dances in school. For now, however, we just stood back and enjoyed. It was really cool to see something that was so ubiquitous with their culture that everyone could join in and have fun.

The next day we started with another run, just a 10km along the mountain side taking in the views of the mountains and vines. We were below 2000m now, so running felt much easier than it had in months. Later in the day, after the run, we went to the Mistral Distillery to do a tour and tasting. This is one of Chile’s longest-running pisco brands and is named after poet and Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral. It was really interesting to see the similarities and differences between the production of pisco and wine, and of course the tasting was a nice way to end it off. While most of us think of crystal piscos, which are clear, here they also do piscos that have been aged in oak barrels, giving them similar tasting profiles to whiskey. We enjoyed sipping on the sweeter, smokier whiskey-style piscos. The crystal ones, however, were much stronger and definitely more suited to making pisco sours, the cocktail that is famous in Peru and Chile.

We then returned back to our little cabin to have a barbecue and enjoy some of the local craft beers we’d purchased at a brewery near the main square. We didn’t refer to this as a barbecue, however, instead calling it our cat party. This is because the camping where we were staying just happened to be the favourite hangout place of all the local cats. When anyone started cooking, and especially if they were barbecuing meats, the cats would all come to your cabin hoping to get some morsels. Knowing this, we naturally bought some extras so we could have enough for all the cats.

The next day was time to head back to La Serena, where we would stay a couple of nights with my friend Gabriel. Originally from Ecuador, I first met Gabs when I was living in Santiago - he was one of my very first friends in the city. Now he lives in Coquimbo, a town right next to La Serena. After having not seen him in person since 2022, I was excited to reconnect. It was then, while waiting for the bus that Monday morning in Pisco, that we saw the school out practising the traditional dances with the students. Children of all ages were participating.

Upon arriving in La Serena, we went to meet Gabs for lunch where he works, before heading to his apartment in the neighboring town of Coquimbo. The view of the ocean from his apartment was absolutely stunning. There, we spent two very relaxed days working and spending time with Gabs. He took us on a tour of his neighborhood, we went running out to his favourite lookout point, and we had dinner with he and his boyfriend. It was wonderful to catch up, reconnect, meet his partner, and just take things slow. This, of course, wasn’t long-lived, as it was time for us to keep going south.

After two nights there, we said goodbye to Gabriel and got on a bus to Santiago. We were staying there one night before cheating a little bit and hopping on a plane down to the city of Punta Arenas, the second-most southern town in Chile. We had a firm date in which we needed to be in the very south of the country by, and it was either fly or take many consecutive night buses and boats. Wanting to avoid one of us getting sick again, we opted to fly.

Our quick stop in Santiago was a lot of fun. It was the 17th of September, and the 18th is their national holiday. Originally, the Midnight Runners community there wasn’t going to run because of the holiday - most people leave the city for beach or countryside cabans. When the team found out that we would be in the city on the 17th, however, those who were in town decided to host a run simply because Jo and I were there. It was absolutely amazing to see some of my friends again from when I lived in Santiago, and for Jo to get to know them. We had a blast at the run, and even though the group was smaller than usual, the energy was just as high as always. We ran, danced, sang, and enjoyed meeting all the new people that now run with Midnight Runners Santiago since I left. The next morning we had to get up at 6am to be at the airport on time, but spending time with friends was worth the lack of sleep. Off to our Southern Chilean Adventure!